Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (July 26/99) - Marionette dolls made by Pelly Bay elders are still detained in the United States, but letters of support may help their release.

That is the message form Marla Limousin who worked with the elders and sent the dolls to Rhode Island, USA, for fine-tuning from expert Dan Butterworth.

"We're getting caught up in a political game," she said about current efforts to retrieve the dolls.

One doll got through to Butterworth, but six were detained by American customs officials and two have been lost outright after being sent by registered mail.

Limousin said she has received a lot of help from MP Nancy Karetak-Lindell and people in Nunavut's Sustainable Resources Department, but so far, the help has not achieved the return of the dolls.

Limousin said Karetak-Lindell is urging letters of support as one method to help the release, particularly because the same kinds of handicrafts would be able to be imported to the southern states if they were from Alaska.

"If the marionettes were from Alaska, there would be no problem importing them down to Rhode Island," said Eric Loring, an environmental wildlife co-ordinator with the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada in Ottawa.

"The Marine Mammals Protection Act passed largely as a feel-good measure in 1972. But seals weren't endangered then and they aren't now."

Loring said one main problem with the bill is that it is "protectionist."

"It's about protecting wildlife and not managing wildlife," he said.

Another obstacle to altering the act are images of baby harp seals being clubbed to death.

Photos of the seals have garnered political opposition to seal harvesting as well as helping spur donations to environmental groups, he said.

The confiscated dolls have been sent from their entry point in New York state for forensic testing in Oregon.

Dan Butterworth has worked on the one marionette doll to make sure its parts all move and that it is as expressive as possible.

Butterworth has also added some parts to make sure the doll has the capacity to swivel its wrists.

"I've had other seal skin products imported before and there hasn't been a problem," he said.

"I think they may have been stopped because it was such a large package that it attracted attention. It also had a heavy smell."